Peter Gago: ‘Struck match is on the way out’

The ‘struck match’ character prevalent in top-end Chardonnay from Australia is ‘on the way out’, according to Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago.

Peter Gago: ‘Show wines tend to have their time in the sun and then a different trend sweeps in, and today, struck match is on the way out’

Speaking about the style of Chardonnay from Australia over recent history when launching The Penfolds Collection 2017 in London last month, Gago recorded a new paradigm of white winemaking in Australia that focuses on “fruit purity” and “less artefact”.

In particular, he observed a move away from a Sulphur-like odour – reminiscent of a freshly struck match – in Chardonnay, which results from the production of Sulphides during winemaking.

Although various techniques can be used to engineer this character, one reliably effective route is to incorporate a high proportion of ‘solids’ in barrel-fermented Chardonnay, which, as they break down, absorb oxygen in the wine, while also producing Hydrogen Sulphide – the compound responsible for the struck match character at low levels, and rotten eggs at higher concentrations.

As long as the winemaker backs off on the battonage (lees-stirring), which introduces oxygen into the vessel, this Sulphidic character can be contained and even enhanced with time.

Over the past 10 years, several high-profile Australian Chardonnay specialists have become notable for using barrels of wine with this character in their final blends, deliberately choosing to add a Sulphidic odour to their Chardonnay, because it brings a whiff of smoky complexity to the wine – and, as a result, success at wine competitions.

And, various terms have emerged to described this odour, from good reduction, to French funk, or sexy sulphides.

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Gago recorded, “The sulphidic element, the cordite, helps you to win trophies, but we are now seeing less of it [in Chardonnay], because the judges have cottoned on to it; so we are seeing a lot less of that artefact.”

Continuing, he said, “Show wines tend to have their time in the sun and then a different trend sweeps in, and today, struck match is on the way out.”

With his own wines, he then said that he was no longer selecting barriques with Sulphidic aromas for use in his top-end Chardonnays. “When it comes to the struck match engineered by lees management, we are now relegating those barrels that give that character,” he commented.

Looking back, he observed some significant stylistic swings in Australian Chardonnay, while acknowledging the country’s short history with this particular grape.

“If you look at all our Chardonnays today, they are the same colour as Riesling, but in the old days, the Chardonnays would be golden,” he said, referring to a more oxidative approach to winemaking in the past, where regular lees-stirring in barrique was more widely practised.

Indeed, speaking about the flagship Chardonnay from Penfolds, called Yattarna, he said that when the label was launched in 1995, and for the first few vintages, there was a lot of winemaker influence in the style.

“In Yattarna 1996, ’97,and ’98, there was too much of everything; anything that we had seen in white Burgundy that we liked we were importing into that bottle, we were trying to do everything, but now, less is more, we want purity and balance,” he said.

Continuing, he noted, “It has been a very steep learning curve: Burgundy has had hundreds of years practicing, but in Australia, the first varietally-labelled Chardonnay was from 1971 – Tyrells VAT 47.”

Another view from another high-profile Australian winemaker…

Neil McGuigan: ‘Sulphides are a wine fault – anything with Sulphidic characters should be kicked into long the long grass’

Meanwhile, speaking to the drinks business this morning, Neil McGuigan, who is the CEO at Australian Vintage, said that any wine that clearly smells of Sulphides shouldn’t be celebrated, but rejected.

When asked by db about the trend towards engineering a Sulphidic aroma into Australian Chardonnay, he said, “For us, purity of fruit is what we are after, and Sulphides are a wine fault – anything with Sulphidic characters should be kicked into long the long grass.”

However, he said that a subtle smoky aroma was desireable, although he stressed that this was not the unpleasant-smelling compound Hydrogen Sulphide. “A struck match character is on the edge of being Sulphidic, and if you smell that character, but don’t taste it, then it is not real Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S), it is like the cordite character you get in white Burgundy – you may think it is Sulphidic, but it doesn’t come through on the palate.”

Continuing he said, “We have Chardonnay with some struck match character, and there are two ways to get that: certain clones of Chardonnay can give you character, and secondly, a solid and a warm ferment can give you that too.”

Concluding, he reiterated his earlier statement, “But Sulphides are a wine fault – so they should not be embraced; their smell is like body odour, and while people may get seduced by it [that character] because it has lift, with age it [H2S] becomes Mercaptan, and that makes the wine undrinkable, it’s horrible.”